The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 eBook

away an umbrella a person obtains comfortable shade
in the next world. (He will not have to be exposed
to the sun). A gift made to a deserving person
is never lost. It is certain to produce agreeable
consequences to the giver.’ Hearing these
opinions of Chitragupta, Surya’s hairs stood
on their ends. Endued with great splendour, he
addressed all the deities and the Pitris, saying ’Ye
have heard the mysteries relating to duty, as propounded
by the high-souled Chitragupta. Those human beings
who, endued with faith, make these gifts unto high-souled
Brahmanas, become freed from fear of every kind.
These five kinds of men, stained with vicious deeds,
have no escape. Verily, of sinful behaviour and
regarded as the worst of men, they should never be
talked to. Indeed they should always be avoided.
Those five are he who is the slayer of a Brahmana,
he who is the slayer of a cow, he who is addicted
to sexual congress with other people’s wives,
he who is bereft of faith (in the Vedas), and he who
derives his sustenance by selling the virtue of his
wife. These men of sinful conduct, when they repair
to the region of the dead, rot in hell like worms
that live upon pus and blood. These five are
avoided by the Pitris, the deities, the Snataka Brahmanas,
and other regenerate persons that are devoted to the
practice of penances.’”

SECTION CXXXI

“Bhishma said, ’Then all the highly blessed
deities and the Pitris, and the highly blessed Rishis
also, addressing the Pramathas, said,[557] ’Ye
are all highly blessed beings. Ye are invisible
wanderers of the night. Why do you afflict those
men that are vile and impure and that are unclean?
What acts are regarded as impediments to your power?
What, indeed, are those acts in consequence of which
ye become incompetent to afflict men? What are
those acts that are destructive of Rakshasas and that
prevent you from asserting your power over the habitations
of men? Ye wanderers of the night, we desire
to hear all this from you.’

“The Pramathas said, ’Men are rendered
unclean by acts of sexual congress. They who
do not purify themselves after such acts, they who
insult their superiors, they who from stupefaction
eat different kinds of meat, the man also who sleeps
at the foot of a tree, he who keeps any animal matter
under his pillow while lying down for sleep, and he
who lies down or sleeps placing the head where his
feet should be placed or his feet where the head should
be placed,—­these men are regarded by us
as unclean. Verily, these men have many holes.
Those also are numbered in the same class who throw
their phlegm and other unclean secretions into the
water. Without doubt these men deserve to be slain
and eaten up by us. Verily, we afflict those
human beings who are given to such conduct. Listen
now to what those acts are which are regarded as antidotes
and in consequence of which we fail to do any injury
to men. Those men upon whose persons occur streaks